


The Wild One

by Not Applicable (not_applicable)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Feral Behavior, Feral Tony, First Time, Frottage, M/M, Missing Persons, Primate Behavior, Primate Relationship dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:29:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_applicable/pseuds/Not%20Applicable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is presumed dead after being lost on a family vacation to Africa in 1976.  32 years later, an Air Force colonel crash-lands in the Congo and finds something truly unique.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is still very much a work in progress, and characters/tags will be added as the story develops.
> 
>  **LEAVE COMMENTS. SEND FEEDBACK.** I wanna know how y'all feel about this and what directions you would like to see this story taken in, questions that you think need to be asked and etc. I think it's gonna end up being between 6 and 8 chapters long. Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see!

**1976**

 

It was cold. Tony was cold. All he knew was that he was cold and his body hurt and he couldn't find Mamma or Daddy anywhere. There was something on the path that had their attention, had _everyone's_ attention except his because there was a little hairy baby there on the path, too, with round eyes and a huge mouth, and Tony wanted to say hi. He wanted to ask how the baby was. But when he spoke, something knocked him away, pushed him down somewhere, and rolling down the hill would have been fun if there hadn't been so many rocks and sticks on the hill, too. They hurt, and when he finally stopped rolling he could only lay by the river and cry. He yelled for help but maybe the river was too loud for him to be heard. He yelled louder and louder and he heard voices at the top of the hill, and he looked up but could only see the glow of their flashlights. The light was too far to touch him.

“Mamma!” he cried, clutching his arm. There was something sticking out of it, a twig, and it hurt too bad for him to pull it out. It was getting dark. He thought about his birthday next week and how Flora, his other mommy, kept saying he'd be “seven and sassy.” What did “sassy” mean? Flora couldn't come with them on their trip because she had her own children to care for, too. He wanted to ask her what “sassy” meant, and he wanted her to pull the twig out of his arm. He tried again and wailed in pain. He was sitting in the mud and it was gross. He looked up again, and the lights were heading away from him, down the length of the river.

 _I'm not in the water! I'm here on the bank, on the shore still!_ He wanted to yell this but he was crying too hard to talk now, his arm _really hurt_ and all he could say was “Mamma.”

It was cold. He kept crying and shut his eyes.

 

*

 

Tony woke up and he felt warm. He felt like he was lying in the warmest, fluffiest bed ever. A bed that moved and grunted and smelled like dirt and grass. A bed with a neck, which his arms were wrapped tightly around.

He opened his eyes quickly and went to call for his mother again but he froze when he felt a sound rumble in his chest. It wasn't coming from him, though – it was a monkey. No, not a monkey...an _ape_ , that's what the teacher lady at their hotel called them before they set out on their visit to the ape mountain place. The ape carrying him had one hand planted firmly on his rump and used the other one to help her walk across the forest floor, and he glanced around to see other apes, too, another lady ape carrying a little baby ape and a few little kid apes and then this one big ape with a lot of white fur on his back.

Tony's initial thought was to scream and cry, but maybe that was the same baby ape from the night before. He realized that he'd probably scared the ape's mommy by speaking to it and that's why she knocked him down the hill, and he wanted to apologize.

“Hello,” he said, and though the apes all looked at him, no one said anything back. “I'm sorry, little ape's mommy,” he said, and this time they didn't even look at him. They kept walking, the big silverback leading the way. The stick had been pulled out of Tony's arm and someone had picked all the rocks and most of the dirt off of his skin, too. The apes were nice.

“Thank you,” he told the lady ape who was carrying him, but she didn't respond. Maybe she didn't speak English, like Flora's husband. “Gracias,” Tony said then, but still, nothing.

They got to a clearing that had a lot of leaves and branches on the ground. The big guy ape went and sat down, and the lady ape that carried him went up behind him and sat down, too. She started picking at his fur, leaving Tony to hold himself up with his arms still around her neck. He saw her pulling out little flecks of dirt or bugs, and she'd eat the bugs. Tony wrinkled his nose but the lady ape didn't seem to mind at all, so he turned in her lap to face the broad back of the big guy. He picked around and found a worm, the same kind he'd seen the lady ape pluck right into her mouth. Tony was hungry. Around him the other apes were eating leaves and that didn't sound tasty at all, so he put the worm in his mouth and chewed. It actually tasted familiar to him, like nuts or something.

 

The mud began to make Tony itch after a while. Mamma would make him take off his dirty clothes and bathe if she saw him this way. They _must_ be coming for him, so he figured he'd make Mamma proud and he wiped as much of the mud off of his legs and shorts as he could. There was water nearby and he rinsed himself off in it, tried not to get too much water on his clothes so he wouldn't be a mess when they showed up to get him.

The sun set and Tony found the lady ape that had carried him to their nest, and she let him climb in her lap. She was just sitting and holding him, occasionally picking in his hair or making weird noises, and she held him close to her bosom. “Where is Mamma?” Tony asked her but she didn't say anything back, just hooted a bit and leaned forward, touching her nose to his. Tony began to cry again and the lady ape held him close. She was nice. He could tell she was a lady ape. Maybe some of the younger apes were her kids. She was already someone else's mamma then. So Tony decided that he would call her Mother.

 

*

 

Mother was mated to Father, and so was the other ape lady. Tony spent his time playing with the other kids and figuring out what he could eat. Some of the leaves and bark that his family ate made him sick, but some were delicious and sweet. Sometimes there was fruit, nothing that Tony recognized but he was always glad to have some. They dug up roots, too, some of which were so tough that Tony lost a tooth every now and then – but new ones always came in afterward. Neat. The rest of his family didn't like water but he did, and once they picked up on this they always nested for the night near water. He slept in the nest with Mother for a long time, until she taught him to build nests in trees. He always stayed close to her, though. His brothers and sisters taught him how to climb faster and better than he ever had before, and they kept bugs out of his hair for him, and he did the same for them. He wasn't brave enough to jump or swing yet but he made it around the forest just the same.

Sometimes he tried to talk to them, but they never spoke back. He asked where Mamma and Daddy were, what their names were, where he was, if they'd ever been to the beach that was near the hotel. But they never spoke back, so eventually Tony stopped speaking, too.

 

*

 

Tony's clothes got ripped and dirty the more he wore them, and his shoes began to get tight on his feet, so he took everything off. He dumped it all in the river and waved goodbye as it flowed away. One of his brothers walked up and waved, too, and Tony hooted with laughter. The sun felt nice on his skin.

 

*

 

He couldn't see around his hair. It was so long now, always in his eyes.

 

*

 

They were walking through the forest together and they heard noises. Weird noises, like something Tony had heard before he met his family. He heard the words but they didn't make sense to him. _When I die / hallelujah by and by..._ It made him nervous, uncomfortable. So loud. What did they used to call that, anyway? Father turned and ran, and they all followed suit.

 

_(Singing. It's called singing.)_

 

*

 

Father tried to bring in a new mommy but Mother scratched her face up so bad that she screamed and ran away. She was not welcome here.

 

*

 

Tony was very happy when Mother and Father had a new baby. He kept Mother clean while she was pregnant, carried extra leaves up to her nests for her so she could sleep comfortably. After the baby was born he watched them together, saw the way mother fed and protected the little one. He did not try to hold or touch the baby – his sister – because he knew that would scare Mother. Not until little sister was walking, he decided. He couldn't wait to hug her.

But then one morning they all woke up except for little sister. Mother nudged her and hooted in her ear, picked at her fur and cleaned her up, put her breast in the little one's mouth for breakfast, but little sister did not move. She must have been very tired because she didn't move at all for the rest of the day as Mother carried her around in their search for food. Little sister was not clutching Mother's fur like she had been before, and her head hung limp unless Mother held it up for her. Three days passed and little sister began to smell bad. Tony didn't want to go near Mother while she was holding that stinky baby, but something told Tony that little sister was not asleep.

After another day, Mother laid little sister by the river. She gave a couple of hoots before walking away, and Tony looked down at little sister. She was different. This was not little sister anymore. He touched her hand and it was cold. He yanked his hand away. He looked back and Mother was being groomed by one of his brothers. She looked out over the river but occasionally glanced back to Tony and little sister, though she didn't come back over there. Tony picked up little sister carefully, she was so limp and her little limbs were just falling all over the place, and he hugged her. He felt like saying something but he couldn't remember, so he touched his nose to hers and whined quietly into her fur.

 

*

 

Tony's body began to do weird things at night. He had dreams that didn't make any sense, and he'd wake up in the morning with his peepee standing up. _(Who was it that called it that? What were their names? What did you call them?)_ He wasn't sure what to do about it. It usually went away after he peed, but sometimes it stuck around. He didn't understand.

 

*

 

Tony hung near the edges of the group nowadays. It had been only five of them at first but now there were thirty of them in his family, and Mother and Father had another baby. Little brother took up all of Mother's time, and all of Tony's original brothers and sisters had gone off to make families of their own. He knew he was expected to leave soon, but he didn't know where he would go. He didn't know what he was supposed to do without them.

 

(In Malibu, CA, Howard and Maria Stark were toasting champagne and lighting a candle on a birthday cake. “Happy birthday, Tony,” Howard said in a voice full of scotch and emotion. “You're thirteen now. That's a big one.” Maria threw her champagne flute against the wall and sobbed into her hands.)

 

*

 

Older brother died. They left him by the river. Tony imagined that once they were gone, he'd float up to the sky.

 

*

 

One morning, Tony decided not to come down from his nest. He rarely even got to groom or hug or touch noses with Mother anymore, and Father rarely regarded him unless one of the new apes tried to fight with Tony. Tony didn't always win those fights and his skin was showing evidence of that. He was always on the edge of the group now, so he figured it was time. Mother and Father didn't look back for him when they all left in search of food for the day.

It was the warm season and they were moving further down the mountain. _He_ was moving further down the mountain. Tony waited until the group was out of sight before setting out on his own.

 

*

 

Tony was alone now. He knew what he could eat and where to find it. He knew where water was. He figured out on his own what what to do about the weird things that happened to his body in the mornings. He no longer moved around day to day, instead opting to stay in one place until he could no longer find food there. He hovered near other groups and would beat his chest for the females, he would strut for them and roar as best he could. But none of them were impressed, and Tony was actually okay with that. When he really thought about it, he did not want to mate with any of them. He was just doing what he knew to do.

 

(In California, Howard and Maria Stark were dying in the wreckage of their car. They both thought of their lost boy, their son who drowned in a river in the Congo on a family vacation, his body never recovered. They still had the motorcycle he built when he was six, the same year he disappeared. He would have been 21 years old in May. Maria open her mouth to speak his name, to say “Tony,” one last time, but instead she inhaled smoke and flame and no words could come out after that.)

 

Tony was lying on his back by the river and looking into the sky. There was a stark pattern stretching across the sky, bright but cloudy and so beautiful. He had given up on courting a mate or joining another family years ago. He still ran into his old family sometimes, and Mother would let him groom her, and Father would fight off any of the young apes that didn't want him around. Tony didn't always sleep up in the nests anymore, even though it was safer up there where the things that made weird noises with their mouths could not see him or reach him. But tonight he wanted to sleep on the shore, under the stars. He wondered if there was anything beyond the horizon.

 

* * *

 

**2008**

 

“I've never been to Africa,” Pepper said over her Mimosa. “I'm so jealous of you, Rhodey.”

Rhodey just grinned, and he leaned back to let the waiter take his plate. He was meeting with the Stark Industries CFO, Virginia Potts, to suss the final details of his upcoming trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to talk shop with some of their military generals. Lt. Col. Rhodes was the military liaison to Stark Industries but this wasn't a trip on their behalf. The Air Force chose him because his face was well-known and he had a high approval rating with the public. He was a professional when it came to buttering people up.

“Well, I appreciate SI donating a few bombers for us to show off to these guys,” Rhodey said, and Pepper just shrugged lightly, as if those planes _didn't_ cost million of dollars each.

“Just bring me back a souvenir,” she said. “No airport gift shop t-shirts, though. Something _good_.”

 

*

 

Rhodey was presented with a gorgeous clay pot at a well-attended press junket by the President of the Congo. Pepper would love it.

 

He couldn't say no when they asked him to fly one of the bombers along with the Congolese pilots. He was an ace pilot but he thought he was just here to shake some hands and give a PowerPoint presentation, not play the part of a dancing monkey for SI and the US military. He decided he'd make a quick trip of it, just zoom around for a bit since the weather was looking messy anyway. He hadn't even been to his hotel yet. It was supposed to be on the beach somewhere.

The wind was rough once he got up to altitude, so he decided to just do a lap and come right back down. He radioed it in that conditions were poor but got no response back – oh shit, his radio went out. He looked at the controls and the panel lights were blinking in a way he'd never seen before, and these planes had gone though rigorous testing but they were still brand new, still not in heavy production, still not to the point that they were tried and true and proven to be reliable.

So Rhodey wasn't surprised when everything in the plane went black and he began losing altitude.

No big deal. He had to manually eject himself, which was scarier than the fact that the plane went dead while he was in it. It was raining where he was now and the wind threw him and his chute around like a rag doll. He was going to rip Justin Hammer a new asshole when he got back to Malibu. Hammer's tech always failed him at the wrong times. He had no idea why Stane even took the guy on as the head of Stark Industries Research and Development.

Rhodey could feel himself being carried further and further away by the wind, further up Virunga Mountain and away from the shore. He hoped _someone_ had a pair of binoculars and was watching for where he'd land because he did _not_ wanna be stuck in the jungle for the amount of time it would take them to find him without having an idea of where he was. He was in a flight suit and it had been hotter than hell earlier in the day. The sun was setting and it was cool out now, but the morning would be unbearable, he knew it.

His feet brushed the tree canopy and he tried to control his landing, tried to look for a clear spot to come down but he just got tangled up in the branches and stopped with a jolt, hanging lamely in the top of a tree. He hadn't climbed down a tree in years but he didn't intend to stay like that until he was found, so he moved his legs around a bit to get his footing on a nearby branch. Once he felt secure he cut the straps of his parachute and held firmly to the branch, and he slid his way down it to find something like a nest. Didn't apes make nests in trees? He wasn't sure. But it was remarkably sturdy and rather large, and really well-made, too. The branches were interwoven like latticework. He'd studied engineering in school, not animal science, so he'd had no idea that apes were capable of skilled tool-making. Impressive.

Then the rain reached him in the canopy, and he was glad that the parachute was still stuck in the branches above him. He figured he'd stay as dry as possible if he just stayed where he was, under the parachute and in the nest. Unless the gorilla that built it intended to come back. But his guide for the trip insisted that apes were shy and typically ran away when humans were present, so he was probably safe up there for a while.

He ended up stretching out on his back and watching the rain hit the parachute. He imagined that Pepper was probably getting a massage or eating sushi right now. _(Still jealous, Pep?)_ He wished he could see the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

Morning came without rescue. Rhodey was a little damp and his back hurt something awful, and he wasn't sure he was a good enough climber to get down out of this tree safely. He stood on the nest and poked at the parachute, making some of the rain water run off of a nearby edge of the chute and into his mouth. He looked to see that the chute was actually stuck in the lower branches of a thick, tall tree, and he worried that it's bright pattern was not visible from overhead. Shit. He looked down at the forest floor. He could hear the sound of water nearby.

It took him a moment but he eased down the tree trunk and stood on solid ground, a comforting feeling. He stretched, hearing his back pop loudly, and he looked around. He didn't know a thing about wild vegetation, and he was hungry for breakfast. He already knew that there was definitely a rescue team looking for him, it was just a matter of time. He should probably stay near the chute, then, in case they actually  _ could _ see it from the sky.

Rhodey walked towards the sound of the water with the intention of cleaning himself up a bit, and he thought he heard footsteps that weren't his own. Could have been predators but maybe it was his ride out of here, and he yelled, “Hello?” There was fast scurrying then, moving away from him. He looked around but the vegetation was too thick for him to see anything. Probably just an ape. They were afraid of humans, anyway.

 

Rhodey found the water and washed his face and hands, and he stripped off his flight suit in favor of the athletic shorts and tank top he wore beneath them. He sat on the shore of the small stream and tried to think of any aquatic herbs, but nothing came to mind. He was getting pretty hungry.

He walked up and down the bank and went through the contents of his wallet and drew pictures in the mud, and when he looked into the sky he could tell that it was about 5pm. The sun would start setting soon.

He heard footsteps again and stood up quickly, looking around. Once again they scurried away. Was an ape stalking him? They were herbivores, right? There weren't big cats in this area to worry about – at least that's what his guide had told him.

And then he saw it – something in the trees. Something was quickly climbing its way up a tree and into the lower canopy, where he could not see it anymore. It was probably just an ape, a gorilla or orangutan or chimpanzee or something. It's probably what he'd heard earlier in the day, too. Perhaps it was just a curious animal checking him out. Still, he reached in the pocket of his flight suit and got out a book of matches. Wild animals typically avoided fire, so he decided he'd start one.

 

Night came and all Rhodey had ingested all day was rain water off of the nearby parachute. His stomach grumbled. He'd been watching the water and he could see that there were no fish in this stream – nothing big enough to provide real sustenance, anyway. He hadn't heard any helicopters or planes or anything. He was a Lt. Colonel and the government's liaison to the world's number one weapons manufacturer. Surely they were gonna come for him, right? 

But then he remembered where he was and what had happened here decades before, and he knew that it didn't take much for a person to get lost or die in a jungle like this. The Stark boy had only been six when an animal attacked him and knocked him into a river, where he drowned. They searched the river for weeks and his remains were never found, and his family waited a year before returning to the Congo to hold a memorial service for him. Rhodey had seen the video of it – they sang “I'll Fly Away.” The Howard Stark that Rhodey met 17 years ago was a shell of a man, just a suit stuffed full of whiskey and cigar tobacco and match books with women's phone numbers on them. Rhodey never met Maria Stark, his wife. The rumor was that she was a shut-in and was addicted to champagne. There were pictures of Tony all over Howard's office when he'd visited, as well as a poster-sized reproduction of their  _ Popular Mechanics _ cover, two feet by three feet right behind Howard's desk.

Something hit the ground near him with a loud thud and Rhodey launched onto his feet, looking around for it in the firelight. He found a large tuber on the ground, where it came from he had no clue, but he still picked it up and took it to the stream to wash it clean. And then he cheered triumphantly – he'd recognize a yam anywhere.

He laid a few rocks around the fire and rested the yam on one, close enough that it could roast quickly. His parachute was still saggy with rain water so he went back to the tree while the yam roasted and climbed up to have a drink, silently wishing that he had something to hold water in. He hadn't been prepared for a crash landing at all. He was lucky he even had a pocket knife and matches on him.

Rhodey worked his way slowly back down the tree, and when he looked towards the fire he saw something amazing. There was a man sitting there.

He was squatting, actually, completely nude with his thin, scarred back facing Rhodey. His hair was a mess, just a bush full of tangles and dirt and knots, and he was making small, abbreviated noises in his throat every now and then. He was just sitting there, just staring into the fire.

Rhodey quickly got down the trunk of the tree but the man heard him, glancing over his shoulder for the quickest of seconds before standing up and peeling out, and Rhodey saw that he had a giant beard as he went to a nearby tree and scurried up it faster than Rhodey thought possible. Rhodey trotted over to the shore where the fire lit up everything around them, and he could barely see the man in the tree because he was crouching and pulling leafy branches in front of him, trying to hide while also maintaining his view of Rhodey. Had this guy thrown the yam down to him?

Rhodey remembered his food suddenly and ran over to the fire, where the yam lay still on the rocks. He gave it a turn and used his knife to poke a couple of holes in it, and he glanced back at the tree. The man was still hiding and still watching him.

“Hey,” Rhodey called, and the man flinched at the sound of his voice. “Hello? Hey man, come down here. Let's nosh.” Nothing. The man just sat there, completely nude and covered in dirt and scars, big dirty hair and an equally big and dirty beard, and Rhodey could hear a quiet but shrill cry coming from the man's throat. He seemed afraid. Who was this guy? Some survivalist practicing for Armageddon? There were no tribes living in this part of the forest, were there? Even if there were, the man in the tree was obviously not African...

And then it clicked. Shit. Rhodey knew  _ exactly _ who that was.

How had he survived for so long? Tony Stark had gone missing in 1976 – how was he still alive? Hadn't his parents  _ seen _ him get washed down the river? There was a memorial park with his name in Malibu and a Montessori school as well. There were scholarships for precocious children in his name, one of which Rhodey himself had won back in high school to send him to the United States Air Force Academy. Tony Stark had been accepted as dead to the western world for decades, but here he was in 2008, naked and hiding in a tree, and as of right now, Jim Rhodes was the only person who knew he was alive.

Rhodey had no idea what 32 years in the wild had done to Tony, and he figured he'd do best by treating Tony like a feral animal. So Rhodey started by turning his back to the tree and tending to his yam, which was roasting quite nicely by now, and this way it left it up to Tony to make contact. The smell of roasted vegetables was starting to fill the air around him and he was sure it was reaching Tony in the tree, too, and this was confirmed when he heard Tony quietly work his way back down the tree and to the ground. 

Rhodey waited as he turned the yam again, but Tony didn't approach just yet. More time passed and Rhodey's hunger began to override his desire to fully cook his food, so he took it off of the rocks and let it cool for a few moments on a large leaf. The air throbbed with the noise of insects in the night, occasional animal calls echoing through the air, but Rhodey didn't hear a sound from the man behind him. He wanted to turn and see if Tony was still there but he also didn't want to startle him, so he just hummed a few bars of a song or two and waited for the yam to cool down a bit more. He paused when he heard a soft, mournful noise come from behind him, but he kept humming.

Soon Rhodey was willing to eat the yam even it was still burning hot, so he took his knife to it and roughly cut it open. It was roasted through pretty good, still firm in the middle but that was okay. It smelled amazing and reminded Rhodey of Thanksgiving, candied yams on his plate and touching his dressing, making it sweet. He picked it up and took a huge bite, and yeah it was still pretty hot but it was so sweet and flavorful and perfect, the best meal he'd had in weeks, and he wanted to turn and tell the wild man thank you but he also didn't want to run him off. Instead he took the other half of the yam and sat it on a rock a little bit away from him, and he turned his head and gave Tony a pointed look as he did so.  _ This is yours, _ Rhodey was trying to communicate,  _ come eat with me, _ and when he looked he saw Tony scooting forward on his hand and knees slowly, tentatively. Rhodey then took the yam and sat it on a leaf away from the fire, out on the sandy shore and clearly away from himself, and that's when Tony skittered up on all-fours and sat down in the sand right beside him, and he picked up the hot yam and bit into it with vigor.

Rhodey had only felt prouder of himself on the day he graduated summa cum laude from MIT.

Rhodey ate silently and so did Tony, who was wolfing down his food so fast that Rhodey was sure he wasn't really even tasting it. He ate the skin and the hard center and all of it, and then he skittered away again. Rhodey was just about to admit defeat when Tony returned, and in his arms he had three more giant yams.

 

Rhodey was full and hydrated and content when he fell asleep that night on the beach. Tony stayed nearby the entire time, just sitting in the sand and watching Rhodey. It was awkward at first but the tiredness overrode any apprehension Rhodey might have felt, and as he drifted off he could tell that Tony was scooting closer to him, just humming and making noises in his throat and staring into the fire, a thing that he might not have seen for 32 years.

 

*

 

Rhodey woke up that morning and Tony was gone. Made sense. He'd just have to tell the extraction team that he was somewhere in this forest, and they could come back for him. Rhodey went to the parachute and found that there was still rain water collected in parts of it, and he had a drink. He went back to the stream's shore and washed his hands and his face, and then he took off his shirt because of the relentless sun.

That's when he heard scurrying in the bushes again, and Tony was walking up to him with his arms full of fruit, leaves, and vegetables. He didn't approach Rhodey but instead went to the fire pit, and he pointed and grunted between the ashes and the food he held. Tony Stark brought him breakfast.

A fire was a good idea – the smoke might signal any planes or choppers overhead. “Alright, let's do this,” Rhodey said, and Tony hooted in response. Rhodey walked over slowly, and he knelt down just as carefully as to not startle Tony. Tony stared intently at him as he prepared the fire and lit it, and Rhodey tried to smile here and there but the truth was that it was just getting a bit awkward. Rhodey sorted through the food and found the things that looked like they'd roast well – mostly root vegetables – and Tony took to cracking open various unidentifiable fruits while never taking his eyes off of Rhodey. He'd scoot towards Rhodey every now and then, inching closer and closer until Rhodey could smell him, the scent of his armpits and the water he washed in and the fruit on his breath that he'd already eaten. Rhodey placed the food near the fire and Tony handed him bits of melon and apple-looking things and little stone fruits that reminded Rhodey of apricots or paw-paws, and they were all sweet and ripe and delicious. 

Rhodey was sucking the pit of what was most definitely a mango when he realized Tony was touching him. Tony had made his way behind Rhodey and was picking through his hair, legs akimbo with Rhodey between them. Rhodey's instinct was to scoot away but he wouldn't – he realized that he was probably the first human face that Tony had seen in decades, and he'd seen enough documentaries about great apes to know that Tony was grooming him. That was one of the primary ways that apes showed affection, not to mention that Tony had brought him plenty of food. Tony liked him.

“Rhodey.” He stated his name softly, and he felt Tony pause. “My name is Rhodey.”

Tony made a pained noise in his throat, but he said nothing.

“Rhodey,” he said again, and Tony continued to produce a low whine from his throat. Tony picked at Rhodey's hair and touched his shoulders and back, looking for bugs but finding none, only stopping to eat once their breakfast was ready.

They ate and stared directly at each other, neither gaze wavering as Rhodey peeled yucca and yams and Tony ate all of his leftover skins. The man in front of Rhodey was thin and covered in scars, some of which looked like claw marks, and his tan was deep and dark. He obviously didn't even notice that he was naked and bare-assed against the ground – he was just staring at Rhodey and eating, hooting or groaning occasionally but mostly just staring and eating.

“Okay,” Rhodey mumbled around his food, only to acknowledge the weirdness of a naked man staring at him while eating, and Tony opened his mouth and moaned long and rather loud, almost like he was trying to talk to him. And that's when Rhodey realized that Tony _was_ trying to talk to him. He was trying to remember English, he was trying to remember how to speak.

“Rhodey.” He just kept repeating his name to Tony, hoping he would pick up on it and mimic it, and Tony kept hooting and moaning, trying his hardest. Still, no real words came out, but that was okay. Rhodey had his fill and then stood, staring at the water and then up at the sky. He thought he heard chopper blades but he wasn't sure.

_ Well fuck it _ , he thought. “It's hot, I'm taking a dip,” he said over his shoulder, and he stripped off his shirt before walking towards the water. He could hear Tony grunting behind him.

“The water's fine,” Rhodey said as he walked up to the shore, and he stopped before he reached the water to strip off his shorts and underwear. If the wild man didn't mind nudity then so didn't Rhodey. But when he turned around he saw that Tony had left, and he could hear him running through the jungle, out into the wild.

 

*

 

It was close to sunset when Tony found him again. Rhodey had heard a chopper go overhead earlier, but maybe the parachute wasn't visible from the sky. He thought of moving it down to the shore just to get it from under the canopies and in plain sight, but it still held water for him and he didn't want to drink from the stream because it would probably make him sick.

Tony walked up with more vegetables and more hooting, but Rhodey understood now. He'd kept the fire going all day to signal his whereabouts and conserve matches, and Tony immediately sat the appropriate vegetables by the fire. Rhodey went to prep them for roasting while Tony walked into the water and went under, and he emerged a few meters away. He stood shoulder-deep and repeatedly dipped his head backwards into the water, squeezing out it's matted length, washing it.

Rhodey thought  _ why not _ and stripped again, it was a hot night and another dip would be comforting, and he walked into the water slowly with the wild child watching his every move. Tony never ran away or acted afraid as Rhodey joined him, and Rhodey made sure to wash himself quite visibly to make it obvious that he was not going to hurt Tony. He rubbed at his arms and chest, his lower body too under the water, and Tony did much the same. Tony was still moaning and hooting, but now it seemed like he was getting somewhere. Rhodey could hear letters now, and H and an E.

“I'm Rhodey,” he said again. “What's your name?” Tony kept trying. “What's your name?”

“He.....h......”

Rhodey just continued to wash himself and he didn't back away when Tony approached him and put his hands on his head, rubbing Rhodey's short hair all around, clearly attempting to get it clean. He was still making noises so Rhodey just continued to bathe himself, and Tony did, too.

“Hello.”

Rhodey blinked. He almost looked around to see where that word came from. Tony had finally spoken to him.

Rhodey looked up into Tony's eyes, which were bright and excited and possibly even proud, and then Tony said it again: “Hello.” The word came out kind of loud and eager, and he kept saying it. “Hello. Hello. Hi.”

“Hello,” Rhodey repeated, and Tony said it back with a smile. Tony placed his hands on Rhodey's shoulders and kept smiling big with his teeth apart and his mouth open, and he kept saying it. “Hello. Hi. Hello.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rhodey said, and he extended a hand. Tony seemed confused before he took Rhodey's hand and brought it up to his face, just examining it for a moment before he lifted Rhodey's arm and...smelled his armpit. Rhodey stifled a laugh at the way Tony's face tickled him there, and then Tony did it to his other armpit, and he couldn't help it – Rhodey sputtered out a chuckle, and for the first time Tony _laughed_. He didn't hoot. He laughed before smiling at Rhodey and kissing the palm of his hand.

“N...Nice...nice to meet you.”

Tony placed Rhodey's palm on his face before leaning forward and touching their noses together. Rhodey's other hand fell down to Tony's waist unconsciously, but when he realized it he didn't back away. Tony wrapped his arms around Rhodey's shoulders, their noses still together.

Tony closed his eyes and said, “Hello.”

 

Rhodey figured that the nest he'd slept in on that first night must have been made by Tony. That's probably how he'd found him. Tony crawled up into the tree with Rhodey's parachute still in it and Rhodey followed, and he hung back on a branch for a bit while Tony tightened up the latticework and put a few leaves on top of it. Tony laid down then towards the edge of the nest, clearly leaving room for Rhodey, and Rhodey might have hesitated for a moment until Tony extended his arms out to him, fingers wiggling, beckoning. No human contact since 1976, probably so long that he'd forgotten what that kind of a touch was like.

Rhodey laid down beside Tony and immediately found the nude man pressing flush against him with Rhodey on his back and Tony lying on his side, and he wrapped his legs around one of Rhodey's and hugged him at the neck. This skinny and scarred man was still cooing and hooting softly, trying to scoot even closer to Rhodey as he did so, and Rhodey could hear letters again – R and D, the dominant sounds of his own name.

“Rhodey. My name is Rhodey.” Well his name was _actually_ James Rupert Rhodes, but this was certainly the best place to start with this guy. “Rhodey. Can you say Rhodey?”

“Rhode.” Tony smiled, and then Rhodey said his name properly again. “Rhodey.” Rhodey nodded and Tony smiled, and he began to repeat Rhodey's name just like he'd done with “hello” in the water. He was touching Rhodey and pressing their faces together, and even though Tony smelled nothing like a perfumed Western man Rhodey still breathed his scent deep, the smell of the stream and the sun and the soil seeping out of Tony's skin. “Rhodey.”

Tony kept trying to scoot closer even though they were already pressed flush together, but then Rhodey realized that this was not the case _at all_ because Tony's erection was strong and firm against his hip, pressed into him hard, and Tony was moving against him in a way that held only one purpose. _Okay, this is awkward,_ Rhodey thought, but he wasn't upset or motivated the shove the guy away. Tony had come of age around primates, beings that mated by the age of eight in some cases, and he'd never had a partner to learn from or with. Rhodey supposed this was natural for Tony, who was seeing his first human face since he was six years old, touching his first human body in just as long, and now he was a man. A 37 year-old man, if Rhodey's math was right (and it always was), and he couldn't blame Tony for what he was doing. Besides, Rhodey was no stranger to getting felt up by other guys, though his superiors in the military were none the wiser.

Tony hooted and closed his eyes, moving faster, and Rhodey reached up and touched his face. That tiny amount of contact seemed to set Tony on fire because his eyes shot open and now his fists were knotted in Rhodey's tank top and the nest was rocking gently with the force of Tony's hips. This was probably just an act of convenience for Tony but Rhodey still felt...well, flattered that Tony had chosen him, that he had kissed his palm and washed his hair for him. Rhodey leaned in and kissed Tony's neck, still clean and soft from their bath, and then Tony actually moaned at that, no hooting or primate chattering, and seconds later he was tensing against Rhodey and just saying his name and pressing fevered but clumsy, inexperienced kisses on the side of Rhodey's face as he came against Rhodey's hip.

Rhodey's own body was responding now and he cursed under his breath – it wouldn't be fair to expect reciprocation when he wasn't sure how much Tony could actually consent, but then again Tony was a grown man and the guy's enthusiasm towards Rhodey couldn't be denied. Still, Rhodey thought about baseball and returning to work while Tony breathed and calmed down, and eventually Rhodey's own hardon subsided.

“Good?” Rhodey asked, and he was actually surprised when Tony seemed to understand what he meant. Tony nodded. “Whoa, you actually know what I'm sayin' to you?” Tony didn't respond to that, but then again Rhodey had forgotten that Tony only had 2nd grade vocabulary skills, not to mention that he hadn't used much or maybe even any of those skills since then. He'd have to stick to smaller words, and he'd have to speak a bit slower.

“Do you understand?” Rhodey asked, slower and while making direct eye contact with Tony, and Tony nodded.

“What's my name?” Rhodey asked, wanting to put this to the test. He'd feel terrible if Tony actually still _didn't_ understand after what they'd done.

“Rhodey,” Tony said, still a little winded, and Rhodey breathed a sigh of relief.

“Do you know your name?” Rhodey asked, and no response. “What's your name? Who are you?”

Tony shook his head, but then he said, “Hello,” and Rhodey forced a smile. Tony curled into Rhodey's side and stretched an arm across his chest. “Mine,” Tony said, and though that statement filled Rhodey with dread he continued to smile through it. Tony tapped on Rhodey's chest. “My – mine. You.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning marked Rhodey's third day lost in the jungle, and now he was starting to worry. They'd put the fire out last night since they were sleeping in the nest and Tony was trying to drag Rhodey into the woods to find food, but he wanted to stay near the shore, didn't want to wander too far away from where he'd landed. Eventually Tony gave up and Rhodey dragged the parachute out of the tree canopy, then down to the shore where no trees could block it from being seen from overhead.

He was spreading it out on the rocky sand when he heard lots of rustling in the trees, more than just Tony scurrying about, and before Rhodey could even look up he heard someone say, “Colonel Rhodes.”

Thank fucking _god._

A four-person extraction team came out of the brush dressed in jungle camo, and they saluted Rhodey as he walked up to them. “What took you guys so long?”

“Our apologies, Colonel,” the leader, explained, and Rhodey could see from the markings on his uniform that he was a US Air Force major. “Inclement weather and the thickness of the foliage kept us guessing for a couple days. Not to mention that you're easily a mile away from where we found the plane wreckage.”

“Yeah, well, where's my ride?”

“On it's way, sir. We radioed it in as soon as we spotted you. Do you need medical attention? Are you injured in any way?”

Rhodey went to give a flippant “no” but then he remembered his generous benefactor, the wild man who brought him meals and kissed like a teenager. “I'm fine, but you don't believe what I found out here – or _who_ , actually -”

And that's when Rhodey heard a terrifying screech and Tony came running out of the bush, and he didn't stop when the rest of the rescue team went for their firearms. He was in front of Rhodey and beating his fists on the ground as four soldiers trained their weapons on him, and Rhodey knew they'd shoot if Tony made even the slightest move for them.

“What the fuck -”

“Who -”

“He's naked.”

“Oh my god.”

The team was clearly horrified by what seemed to be Tarzan defending the Colonel, who had just realized that he was Jane in this equation. They had their weapons up but were staring wide-eyed and bewildered, too shocked to even give Tony a warning.

“NO.” Tony was yelling so loud that it echoed. “NO. GO AWAY. MINE.”

In the back of his mind, Rhodey was glad to hear that Tony was getting the hang of speaking again, but he knew he needed to diffuse this situation fast. Tony was still beating on the ground, looking like he might charge, and Rhodey knew that Tony wouldn't win out against a gun.

“Okay, everybody, relax,” Rhodey said. “Drop your weapons, that's an order.” They all lowered their weapons slowly, their faces full of questions. “And holster them. Now.” They did as they were told, still staring at the hooting, snarling man crouching in front of Rhodey.

“I was just trying to tell the Major before he ran up,” Rhodey said. “Soldiers, this is Tony Stark. He's been out here for 32 years.”

Rhodey wasn't surprised to hear a chuckle or two from the group, but what did surprise him was when Tony stood and faced him, his eyes wide and his head nodding vigorously. “Tony. Tony Stark,” he said, repeating Rhodey and pressing his hand to his own chest. “Anthony.” Rhodey nodded at Tony's revelation. He recognized his name. “What's your....what's my name. Tony Stark.”

 

Rhodey gave Tony his flight suit to wear though it was way too big for him, but they couldn't have him walking around naked once they got to their destination. Tony didn't fight being dressed – he actually seemed intrigued by the uniform, the fabric and it's zippers.

Tony shrieked and tried to run away when the chopper came overhead. He wouldn't go far without Rhodey, though, and Rhodey just held Tony's hands and ignored the others when he touched his forehead to Tony's and said, “Shh, it's okay, relax, it's safe, we're safe, we're going home.” Tony responded okay to that, stopped shrieking and crying long enough for Rhodey to guide him into the chopper. He strapped Tony in well and prepared himself for Tony to flip out when they took off – and he did, yelling “NO” over and over again until they got up to altitude, and then he looked out over the map of Africa below them, Virunga Mountain and his home of three decades spread out for him to see. A camera flashed and Rhodey prepared to yell at whichever GI had taken the photo, but then he noticed that Tony had stopped yelling and had become perfectly calm at the sight of the earth below, just grunting softly at the expanse, staring out of the window until they reached the helipad at Rhodey's hotel.

He knew he'd need to be debriefed about the plane crash and he'd need to call Pepper and Hammer at SI about it, too, but he hoped that could wait until tomorrow. He wanted to get Tony cleaned up first, cut his hair and his beard, brush his teeth, clean his nails, scrub his hard feet back to softness. Rhodey needed to contact the executors of the Stark estate, too, to figure out what would happen to Tony now. He'd been thought dead for decades and the Stark estate was pretty much just a business now, a 501-c3 that just handled the scholarships and memorial parks and science summer camps and whatnot. What would they even do with Tony?

They took the service elevator to Rhodey's floor (they had upgraded Rhodey to a top-floor suite during his absence, and he wouldn't complain) and he made sure the short hall was clear before leading Tony to the room. Tony walked quickly behind Rhodey with a hand on his shoulder, stumbling a bit as he dragged his feet across the carpeted hallway.

They reached the room and Rhodey supposed that he should have been wildly impressed with the opulence of the space, but all he could think about was the shower and the kitchen, which he hoped was stocked with food. Tony drifted in and just looked around, silent and unblinking at the chandelier and the round living room and the huge couches and chairs, the fully stocked bar off to the right and a huge picture window looking out over the city. He went to the window and stared as Rhodey plopped down on the couch, laying down, and Rhodey literally moaned at the feel of the soft fabric and cushion beneath his back. He could fall asleep, and he wasn't even tired.

He glanced up and saw that Tony was undressing, unzipping and pulling off the flight suit to leave it in a pile at his feet. He knew that the Major was probably reporting Tony's rescue to the military right now, and then it would only be a matter of time before Stane and the rest of the world found out. Tony was still just gazing out of the window at the world below, and he began to shiver. The air conditioning was going and maybe this was the first time Tony had felt air this cool since he was a child.

Fuck. Rhodey needed to call Pepper, at the least. He wanted to get the ball rolling himself to make sure that Tony would be alright once he got home. He and Tony couldn't just hang out in a hotel suite forever – eventually they'd be back in the US and he worried about what would happen to Tony. Would Tony be entitled to the Stark family fortune? Would he even have a place to live? Would the executors try to put Tony in an assisted living facility? Would Stane try to parade him around? Tony had been quite the genius child but now he had a lot of catching up to do just when it came to the basics, like tying his shoes and shaving. Rhodey was sure that Tony probably couldn't read on an adult level, and he might have even forgotten what he'd learned already. Who would teach him?

Rhodey got up and went into the bedroom, where his bags had been dropped off, and he found his cell phone. He plugged it in to charge and dialed Pepper's number, and she picked up after the first ring.

“Jim, oh my god,” she said, obviously having been woken up by the call, “are you okay? I'm so sorry about that fucking jet -”

“Yeah, I'm fine, I'll be fine.”

“Seriously, we can't apologize enough for that. Stane and I have literally been taking turns yelling at Hammer for the past three days.”

Rhodey chuckled, but still. “Don't give him too hard of a time. It wasn't all bad.”

“How so? I'd say being lost on a mountain in Africa sounds pretty scary.”

“I found Tony Stark.”

The line went silent but Rhodey knew Pepper was still there.

“He's dead. He died thirty years ago, right?”

“No. I mean I don't know how he survived for so long, but he did. I wanted to tell you before you heard it through the grapevine. The Air Force extracted us so it's only a matter of time before it's all over the news.”

“How does he look?”

Rhodey looked up and Tony was standing in the doorway, sinewy muscles flexing as he trembled from the cold air. He seemed so out of place in the suite, naked and hairy and smudged with dirt here and there, but his eyes were bright and Rhodey could see the lines of his smile beneath his big, bushy beard.

“He's gorgeous,” Rhodey said, and he caught himself immediately. “I mean he's pretty scarred up – looks like he got in a fight or three while he was out there, but he's in good shape, kinda skinny but I can tell he ate well out there. He didn't have any problem finding food for us.”

Tony walked over and sat on the bed beside Rhodey, and then he pulled himself close and nearly curled into his lap. Rhodey wrapped an arm around Tony, rubbed at the goosebumps on his shoulders. Tony hooted and pushed his face into Rhodey's neck, and Rhodey couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

“Oh my god, what was that noise?” Pepper said. “Is that him? Is he -”

“Yeah, he's right beside me,” Rhodey said. “I'm thinking he might have been taken in by some apes. He pretty much acts like one.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, my own personal Tarzan.”

Tony was still shivering and cuddling him, and suddenly Rhodey felt bad. Tony wasn't a cartoon or a fictional character, he was a person who'd been lost in the jungle as a child and had to take whatever help he was offered. He'd be dead if he'd have had to fend for himself. Nothing about this situation was funny.

Tony's earthy scent was stronger than usual, probably because they were in this sanitized and perfumed space. Rhodey had a barber's kit in his luggage.

“I'm thinking I should get off of the phone now,” Rhodey said. “I need to clean this kid up, get him presentable to the western world.”

“Alright, but find me the second you get home,” Pepper said. “What do you think's gonna happen to Tony when you two get back?”

Rhodey sighed. “I don't know. We gotta get in touch with his estate, all that stuff. He's 37 so I bet it'll come down to figuring out how competent he is, if he can be on his own and such.”

“Yeah. Well, keep me posted.”

“I will. Goodnight.”

“See ya soon.”

 

Rhodey got up and Tony immediately grabbed his hand, his eyes bewildered and kind of scared. “Cold,” Tony said, his grip firm.

“I know, I'll fix it,” Rhodey said, and he pulled away to go to the thermostat and turn down the a/c. He went into the bathroom then and started the huge tub, and he dumped some complementary bath salts in there that were laying by the faucets. Rhodey went to the closet in there and found a heavy robe. “Tony,” Rhodey called, and Tony was there in a second, running right up to him and pressing to him. He was covered in goosebumps so Rhodey turned and put the robe around Tony's shoulders, and Tony slid his arms into it obligingly. Rhodey tied it shut for Tony and smiled at him, _good job_ he wanted to say, but he didn't wanna patronize the man too much. He'd managed to get the flight suit on just fine with Rhodey's help, anyway. He could tell that Tony was starting to remember things about the way humans lived.

“Mine?” Tony asked. He reached up and laid a hand on Rhodey's chest. “Mine?”

Before, Tony had just declared it, but now Rhodey could tell that Tony was asking him. He had a _very important_ decision to make. It was clear now that Tony had decided that Rhodey was his mate and Rhodey had always assumed that that sort of thing wasn't consensual in the animal kingdom, but maybe apes did it differently. Tony had obviously courted him with gifts of food and grooming, comforting touches and blatantly animalistic come-ons like the armpit sniffing, and Rhodey had accepted it all gladly. Not to mention that, in a way, they'd already had sex. Did gorillas mate for life? Rhodey couldn't remember. But everyone Tony had ever known was dead except for Stane, and Rhodey doubted he'd remember that guy anyway. Tony didn't have anyone else. He was alone in the world now, more alone than he'd been in the wild.

“Yes,” Rhodey said, and he leaned forward and kissed Tony's face. He pressed his own hand to Tony's chest then, and he said, “Mine.” Tony smiled and clapped his hands.

 

The tub was gigantic so filling it would take a while, and that gave Rhodey enough time to get rid of Tony's beard. He'd expected Tony to freak out or resist but he didn't, he sat patiently as Rhodey used scissors to cut the length of the matted and tangled mess on his face, and though the razor frightened him at first he eventually sat still for a close shave. To see Tony's bare face was almost too much. He looked a lot like Howard Stark, all big-eyed and strong-jawed, but when he smiled it was purely unique, a thing of beauty that was all his own. He walked around behind Tony and began chopping away at his hair, hair that resembled a rat's nest more than anything, and Rhodey was starting to wonder if he needed heavy duty fabric scissors for this job. But eventually he got the worst of it taken away, and though what was left looked awful, he'd just call in a barber later to cut Tony's hair into a distinct style. Rhodey turned off the running water and began to remove his own clothes, the same dirty tank top and athletic shorts he'd been rescued in, and he looked back to see Tony staring at himself in the mirror, touching his own face with wonder, running his hands through dusty, short hair.

“Tony, bath time,” Rhodey said, and Tony didn't stop staring as he removed his robe and left it on the floor. “Shower first.” Tony approached and they walked into the free-standing shower together, and Tony jumped back when Rhodey turned on the water. Rhodey resisted the urge to grin, instead just saying, “It's okay,” and he took Tony by the shoulders and turned his back to the stream of water. Tony made a small noise when the water hit him, soaking his hair and running down his neck and shoulders, but it didn't sound like it was made out of fear. “Good?” Tony nodded. Rhodey took Tony's hand and dumped some shampoo in it, and Tony seemed appropriately baffled by it until Rhodey put some in his own hands and rubbed it in his hair. Tony did the same and his expression said that it was making sense to him now. He worked the shampoo all around and even scrubbed behind his ears, and Rhodey couldn't resist it this time: “Good job,” he said.

They rinsed off and then walked to the tub together, where the water was still plenty hot. Tony needed the soak, Rhodey thought, because even though he'd bathed once in the forest there was still dirt and gunk that seemed permanently stuck on him. Tony sat down in the water and then Rhodey did, too, and Tony immediately slid over to him and cuddled up.

“Rhodey,” Tony said. Rhodey nodded, quietly encouraging Tony. “Where...where am I?”

“You're in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Rhodey said. “Africa.”

“Where is Mamma?”

“Mamma is gone,” Rhodey said. “Your parents, mother and father, they're gone.”

“No,” Tony said. “Mother, Father.” Tony pointed out of the room then, towards the window. “Mamma. Daddy. Where is Mamma and Daddy?”

“Howard and Maria Stark,” Rhodey said, and Tony nodded. “They died in 1991.”

Tony paused for a moment, then nodded. He hooted a little bit and Rhodey wrapped an arm around him, prepared for the tears, but they never came. Did Tony understand?

“They're dead,” Rhodey said again. “Do you know what 'dead' means?”

Tony nodded. “Cappy dead,” Tony said, and Rhodey was confused until he remembered the framed photo that he'd seen on Howard's desk years ago, when he was fresh out of basic and interviewing for work. It was Tony and a huge Mastiff, a dog that was taller than Tony, and written on the frame was _Tony and Cappy, 1974._ He'd lost his dog when he was four, apparently, and Rhodey hated to admit that he was happy to know that. At least he understood what death was. “Brother dead. Sister dead. Sad.”

Rhodey didn't know Tony was talking about. He was an only child, right? Was this the ape family that had taken him in?

“I'm sorry,” Rhodey said.

“They go to the river,” Tony said. “They go to the sky.”

 

Tony was out of the tub now and Rhodey was helping him brush his teeth, though he got the hang of it pretty well once they got started. Flossing would come after that, then another brushing to clear the last of any gunk away. Tony's teeth were strong but not blindingly white like most rich Californians, and Rhodey couldn't see any obvious cavities or chipped teeth or anything. He'd take Tony to the dentist once they got home, the doctor, too, and get him a full check-up.

Rhodey's cell phone rang and he groaned. He was hoping they'd be left alone for the day so he could help Tony acclimate more. He walked out of the room and picked up the phone, and sure enough...

“Yes sir...he's here...no, he's...I don't think that's a good idea, he's still – working on his language skills. I think he needs a few weeks before he can handle questions like that...no, like he literally can't understand when you talk that fast at him...he won't know what that means...sure, I can debrief... _what_?”

Stane was gonna video conference into his debriefing. It was four in the morning in California but the word was already out that Tony had been found. Rhodey didn't want to talk to Stane, he didn't want that guy to even know Tony was back. He knew how single-minded Stane could be in his ambitions and he worried this meant that Obie had plans for Tony. Either way, Rhodey didn't intend to miss this meeting whether he wanted it to happen or not.

 

The Air Force had a safehouse in a nearby apartment, and there they had secure lines for communication. Rhodey called beauticians and barbers to the room and charged them all on the US government's tab, and it didn't take much convincing for Tony to be left alone with the people attending to him. Tony was digging through their bags and looking at hair clippers and breaking nail files and smelling pomade when Rhodey stood to leave, and he could barely be distracted long enough for Rhodey to say goodbye.

“I'll be back in a couple of hours,” Rhodey told the barber as he slipped him a tip. “Take your time, clean him up real good. Don't go until I get back, okay?” Rhodey turned up the tv a bit – the more he spoke to Tony, the better Tony's own speech got, so Rhodey found BBC Four and left it there. “He's...he doesn't like being alone.” Rhodey just wasn't sure about leaving Tony alone just yet, especially with fire hazards and breakables all around him.

The safehouse was empty except for a laptop on a desk. Rhodey rolled his eyes and sat down to load up the video conference software. In the nineties these places had actually looked like real homes, but since 9/11 the boys up top had started to take themselves too seriously. The progam auto-dialed to Edwards, and once that connection was established he was faced with just Obadiah Stane, in bed in his pajamas and smoking a cigar.

“Where's the General?” Rhodey asked. “I'm supposed to debrief -”

“Already took care of it,” Stane said. “Strong winds plus structural issues along the wings, yada yada. Your settlement's being deposited into your credit union account tomorrow morning, okay? Go buy an island, Colonel.”

Stane smiled and Rhodey guessed that was supposed to be comforting to him, but it wasn't. “So why are you the only one on the line now?” Rhodey asked.

Stane put down his cigar and looked up somberly. “So you found Tony?” Rhodey nodded. “I saw a picture – goddamn, I couldn't believe it. Looks like a wild man.” Rhodey winced. He knew he should have grabbed that soldier's phone and thrown it out of the chopper. “How'd you find him?”

“He saw me in the forest,” Rhodey explained. “Followed me for a day, brought me food.”

Obie raised an eyebrow at that. “What's he like?”

“He's nice. He took good care of me out there in the wild, I gotta say. He's getting a haircut right now, actually.”

“ _No_ , I mean is he...” Obie trailed off then, remaining silent for a moment before reaching up and banging his fists on his chest lightly. Rhodey resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“No,” Rhodey said, and he set his jaw for a moment. “He understands what you say to him, even if he can't quite respond just yet. Sure he's a little jumpy, but I think he just needs a few months back in the world. He'll come around.”

Obie nodded. “So what happens to him when you get back?” Stane asked, and Rhodey's brow wrinkled. “He's 37, Colonel...He's an adult. The state hospital won't take him in unless he's in need of a full-time caretaker, and _that's_ only if he meets certain qualifications – which he doesn't.” Rhodey opened his mouth to speak but he couldn't. Had Stane already been in touch with the Department of Human Services? “He was a real whiz kid so we know that's not the case. I'll be honest – I was his godfather decades ago, but I'm in my sixties now and I just can't...” Stane shook his head and just looked away for a moment. “So now I guess I we gotta hire a staff for him, huh? Get him a nurse, tutors, and all that.” Obie shook his head again and stared at the glowing cherry of his cigar.

“Don't worry about it then,” Rhodey said, before he really even realized what he was saying, but it was out now and he couldn't back down from the thought in his head. “I got him.”

Obie's brow wrinkled. “Rhodey, come on, you been through enough with this shit already. Tony's all alone, anyway. You don't need the responsibility.”

“I don't mind – especially when _you_ do.” Obie looked at him and Rhodey swallowed, but he held his resolve and kept his eyes pinned on Stane. Obie had obviously already checked in on dumping Tony into the state mental health care system, but since that was now a no-go it seemed that his only other option was to hire people to “raise” Tony for him. Tony didn't need raising, though. He just needed to remember. He just needed time with a few books and a few people to listen to and talk to, and he'd get back to normal. Rhodey was sure of it. Tony had figured out how to remove that flight suit and wash his hair on his own, anyway – everything else was on its way in due time.

“You've got a company to run, Mr. Stane,” Rhodey continued, trying to appear casual. “You can't be tasked with reintroducing a grown man to the world. Really, I'll handle it. He can just bunk up with me until he gets on his feet.” They _were_ mated to each other, after all, but truthfully Rhodey worried about Tony being left with the Stark Foundation or the company, people that would just parade him around for publicity's sake.

“Well, I'll dig up a spot for you two somewhere in Malibu,” Stane said. “When are you flying out?”

“Tomorrow evening.”

“Alright. I'll see you two then.”

 

*

 

Rhodey expected the hotel suite to be on fire when he returned, but actually Tony was in the bathroom with the barber, who was showing Tony how to style his own hair. The barber mimicked each pass of the comb through his own hair as Tony did it for real, sweeping his hair back into a waxed coif that wasn't unlike Howard Stark's legendary 'do. Tony was still in his bathrobe but now his fingernails and toenails were trimmed, his teeth were not white but they were clean, his hair was neat and his skin was spotless. Rhodey would have forgotten that Tony wasn't even a day out of the jungle if not for the way Tony hooted when he nodded and smiled at the barber's praise.

Rhodey gave the barber and manicurist another tip and they left, and immediately Tony walked up to him. Tony looked like a normal man fresh from the spa, but his wild eyes and eager expression gave him away.

Tony opened his mouth like he was going to speak but nothing came out for a moment or two, and Rhodey just waited patiently. Tony was still remembering. “Potty,” Tony finally said. “I need...I need to go potty.”

Oh, damn. Rhodey hoped that Tony would get the hang of the toilet as quickly as he'd caught on to everything else.

 

Tony had used a toilet by the time he was six so he bathroom trip went fine, and soon Tony got warm and removed his robe, just dropping it on the floor of the living room. His body was still covered in thick scars and his skin was deeply tanned, and he pulled both feet up and squatted on the couch as opposed to sitting on it. Rhodey didn't wanna correct Tony so he just moved them to the bedroom, and they lay together on the bed and watched television – cooking shows and news and stand-up comedy, anything with people talking constantly. Tony didn't get the comedy but he listened with rapt attention, listening to every single word spoken.

“Tony,” Rhodey said, and Tony looked up from where he lay beside Rhodey, nearly wrapped around him. “We're going home tomorrow.” Tony pointed out of the window, back towards the mountain, and Rhodey shook his head. “No, to America. We're going home to California.” Tony's eyes went wide at the mention of his home state, as if memories were busting into his mind and making him laugh and smile like he was. “Yeah. Malibu, remember?” Tony nodded, and Rhodey was so glad. “Do you wanna stay with me?” Tony didn't respond, he just stared at Rhodey. “Mamma and Daddy are gone now. No house anymore. Do you want to come and live with me, Tony?”

Tony took a moment to respond, possibly processing that information. “Yes,” Tony eventually said, and it was as if a thousand pounds was lifted off of Rhodey's shoulders. He knew Tony would say yes, but he was just glad to actually hear it, to know that Tony wanted to come with him.


	4. Chapter 4

Rhodey spent the first four hours of the flight home on the phone getting their living arrangements squared away for the time being. Rhodey lived hours away near Edwards AFB so Stane had set them up with a company-owned beach house in Malibu, not far down Malibu Point from where Tony had grown up, and Rhodey hoped Tony would recognize the area, remember it, be comforted by it somehow. Tony still didn't have any assets in his name, at least as far as Rhodey knew, and he called Pepper to check in on that. She'd been meeting with the Stark estate executors all afternoon to find anything that could be turned over to Tony. That photo had been leaked and now it was all over the news.

“There was an article in the Washington Post today,” Pepper said over the phone line. “The extraction team claims Tony attacked them -”

“He didn't attack anyone,” Rhodey said, exasperated. Rhodey looked to Tony who was right beside him in the window seat, his eyes glued on CSPAN. “I don't care to hear what kinda stupid shit people have to say about him anyway.”

“Okay...touchy.”

Rhodey just huffed, embarrassed. “Sorry, I just...look, what about assets?” he asked instead. “Does he have anything of his own or do I need to clean out my guest room?”

“Well, we did some digging and there's hope, but I'm still looking into it. Maybe we should meet when you get back in town.”

“We land at eight if you wanna meet us at the house on the Point. We're staying there for a while.”

“Sure, and I'll grab some dinner.”

They said goodbye and Rhodey hung up his phone before looking to Tony again. He was staring out of the window as they flew above white clouds that stretched to the horizon of a clear blue sky.

“Airplane,” Tony said. “We're flying.”

“Yeah,” Rhodey replied. Tony hadn't even cried or protested when they boarded the plane this time. He was the first one at the door when they boarded, actually. “You like to fly.”

“It's fun,” Tony said, still staring out of the window.

 

*

 

Tony liked Chinese food a little too much. He ate everything that Rhodey and Pepper didn't, and every now and then he'd say, “that's spicy,” or “it's sweet,” while he tore into his food with his hands, and Rhodey supposed he'd give Tony a table etiquette refresher course if they ever needed to eat around people who would care. And Pepper certainly didn't – she'd tried to correct Tony at first when he grabbed a spring roll in his fist and ate the entire thing at once, but now she was just sipping her beer and grinning as Tony shoveled noodles into his mouth.

“I bet his stomach is gonna be torn up tomorrow,” she said, and Rhodey nodded. This food was very different from what Tony had been eating for the past few decades and maybe they should have been refusing to let him eat so much of it, but nah. Rhodey remembered his first taste of cheap American-style Chinese food and yeah, he'd eaten every bite and regretted it the next morning, too.

We'll start slow with Mexican food, then,” Rhodey said, and Pepper smiled as she went for her purse and pulled out a tablet. Ah, down to business. “So what's the story with the estate?”

“Better than I'd assumed,” she said, her fingers working quickly on the touch screen. “About a decade after he disappeared, Howard and Maria revised their wills and created the Stark Foundation, and pretty much all of their shared assets went to the organization for philanthropic purposes. But _then_ we've got all the assets that weren't shared, specifically those of Maria Stark's. All of her privately-held money and property were left to Tony in a will dated May of 1980. Let me see here....yeah, so Tony's got a villa in Capri, Italy, an apartment in Milan, a house in Long Island, and a couple of old savings accounts that have gathered a _remarkable_ amount of interest over the years.”

Pepper slid the tablet over to Rhodey and he sputtered around his sugar biscuits. “Remarkable” was definitely the word he would have used, too.

“Holy shit,” Rhodey said, and he turned to Tony. “Hey buddy, go buy an island.”

The joke didn't register but that was okay, and Tony stood and pointed out of the room. “Bathroom,” he said, impressively using the grown-up word for it. “I'm...going to the bathroom.”

Tony walked out of the room already pulling at the drawstring of his sweatpants. Pepper waited until he was gone to give Rhodey a questioning look.

“He can go by himself?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Rhodey said lightly. “I only had to go with him the first time.”

“So he's a quick learner – always has been, eh?”

“Apparently. All it takes is remembering.”

Pepper nodded in approval. “Good,” she said. “So he's got enough capital to buy a house. We can find him something he likes and have you back in Edwards in a couple of weeks, I bet.”

Rhodey smiled but he figured it looked empty, and he stared down the neck of his beer. “Take your time,” he said, trying to sound flippant. “I like these SI beach houses, man. Better than running up the utilities at my own place.”

“You like living with him?” she asked. “I mean...you don't mind taking care of him?”

“I'd rather do it than leave him alone out here,” Rhodey said, and Pepper made a sympathetic face. “The media is flipping out...the Air Force says I need to make a statement, do some interviews. Imagine if he had to deal with all of this on his own. He's only been tying his shoes for like a day, you know?” Tony had survived 32 years in an African jungle but this was California, this was 2008. “He can't handle this by himself, not the way he is right now. I wanna stick around until he can. He kept me alive out there. It's the least I can do in return.”

“So you like him?”

Rhodey shot Pepper a pointed glance, an expression that made her own go bewildered. “I didn't mean it like...” Pepper stopped speaking and her eyes went wide. “Jim. _Oh my god._ You did not, you two did _not_ -”

“We _didn't_ ,” Rhodey insisted. He looked up and Tony was back from the bathroom and walking back over to them. “We haven't gotten very far.”

“Why are you two 'going places' at all?” Pepper put down her beer and sat up straight. “Okay, what's going on here? I understand you wanna make sure he'll be alright, but are you -”

“He decided I was his mate,” Rhodey blurted out. The words felt ridiculous coming out of his mouth, and judging by the look on Pepper's face, they sounded ridiculous, too. “He followed me for a day, brought me food, groomed me, kissed me, all that stuff. I googled it. He said 'mine' and I said 'yes.'”

Pepper looked like he'd just told her that they were gonna bomb Russia. “What? What does that _mean?_ Why in the world would you say yes to that?”

“So it wasn't the right thing to do?” Rhodey asked, and he was pleased when Pepper didn't have a response. “To have him stay with who he wants? If he hadn't wanted to pair up with me then who knows, maybe I _would_ just leave him with Stane and the Stark Foundation, but Obie doesn't want the responsibility – he told me so. Staying with me is better than Tony being left in the care of strangers. Isn't it?”

“Sure, I get it,” she said, grinning suspiciously. “It's nice to feel needed.”

“Pepper,” Rhodey said firmly, “I do not like what you're implying _at all_.” Still, they shared a familiar grin.

Tony was walking back over and carrying a model of a motorcycle that had been on the hallway sidebar. He'd already removed the pedals and was working on dismantling the body of it.

“I don't mean any harm,” Pepper said. “I mean it – he needs you, and he likes you, too. That much is plain to see.”

Tony returned to his seat and scooted his chair right against Rhodey's before sitting down in it properly, though he did immediately turn his body towards Rhodey as he continued to pull the motorcycle apart. Rhodey saw Pepper's snarky grin go soft at that.

“So that's it?” she asked, and Rhodey felt like it was probably a rhetorical question. “Just keepin' him out of the hands of the bad guys, huh?”

“Shut up,” Rhodey said, and Pepper laughed, and Tony carefully removed the wheels of the bike.

 

* * *

 

Rhodey stood under a bright sun at a podium on the front lawn of the Stark Foundation headquarters, the building that used to be Tony's home. Tony was back at the beach house with Pepper, who was happy to miss this spectacle in lieu of sitting with him. Rhodey wondered if Tony would have wanted to come and see his old home, but maybe that trip was best left for a time when the press wouldn't be swarming. There were ten microphones attached to the podium and an extra twenty on their own stands around it, not to mention the four pinned to his lapel and the countless boom mics that dangled in the air. Rhodey supposed that he might as well get this statement out of the way.

“Last week, I found Tony Stark on Virunga Mountain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were extracted by an Air Force rescue team and he's been back in the United States for a total of six days. He is adjusting well and he says that he is happy.”

Rhodey stopped talking and the crowd went silent, some of the reporters even looking around in confusion. He didn't need to say any more, did he? That was all that the press was entitled to know, anyway. Still, Rhodey wasn't surprised when the Stark Foundation's PR officer opened the floor to questions.

“Colonel, can you tell us more? What's he like? Can he speak? Does he remember anything?”

“He doesn't talk much, but he's getting better with practice. He remembers more and more every day.”

“How did you find him?”

“I saw him on the shore of a stream.”

“How did he survive for 32 years out there?”

“He knew where to find food and water. He managed it, somehow.”

“Even as a child?”

Rhodey hesitated. He didn't want to divulge that he was fairly positive that Tony had been taken in by primates. It was just too sensational – he hated to think of the ridicule, the nicknames that the press would come up with. “He might have had some help,” Rhodey said instead, “but I don't know anything about that.”

“Members of the extraction team claim that he attacked them.”

Rhodey just snorted. “That didn't happen.”

“They said he was running around like a monkey.”

Rhodey felt his face heat up but he kept his cool. “He was startled by the appearance of the extraction team, yes, but no one got attacked. The only one in danger was Tony.”

“Where is he now?”

“He's in Malibu. We're working on getting him acclimated to modern life.”

“Who's 'we'? Does he have caretakers? Long-lost family members?”

Right now it was just Rhodey and Pepper. “He has people that are helping him out,” he said. Rhodey was due to meet with the executors of the Stark estate right after this press conference. “Tony just needs to remember how to be...he needs to be around people again, you know, to remember this life. That's all.”

 

*

 

The meeting with the executors went well. The estate was arranging to have Tony's money placed in accounts in his own name, and Pepper had mentioned house-hunting again before he'd left for the press conference. Tony would need to sign the various deeds to his new properties, as well, but he was still holding pens in his fist when he wrote. Rhodey figured he should get Tony a tutor. He and Pepper could help some, but not enough. Once Tony found a place to live he'd be expected to move out on his own. Rhodey was already getting calls from Edwards and Stark Industries about when he planned to return to work.

Rhodey pulled into the garage and groaned as he turned off his car. Obie's Cadillac was in the driveway and Rhodey looked up to see the man walking out of the house, his suit jacket slung over his arm as he paused to light his cigar with a match. He saw Rhodey and nodded, though he didn't smile, and Rhodey got out of his car, eager to find out how his first meeting with Tony went.

“Leaving already?” Rhodey asked, and Obie grinned bitterly as he approached.

“Yeah – nothing to see,” Obie said, and Rhodey blinked. “I mean, plenty to see, really.” Obie groaned and stepped closer. “Rhodes, I _asked_ you, I asked if he was normal and you acted like he was.”

Rhodey wasn't sure how to respond. “He's as good as can be expected, I'd say,” he replied, worried that his voice wasn't as confident as usual. “He's not like you and me just yet, but he's -”

“We're gonna have to get him a tutor or something,” Obie interrupted, and he gestured at the house. “We can't bring him around people if he's just gonna strip off his clothes like he's got no sense. He even _talks_ like he's...”

Obie didn't finish that sentence and Rhodey was glad. “I think a tutor is a good idea,” Rhodey said. “Pepper and I are working with him a little bit, jogging his memory, but a professional would be best.”

“I'll send some people over.”

Yeah – no thanks, Obie. “I'm sure Pepper's got some good resources in that way, too.”

“As long as it gets done.” Obie shrugged carelessly before waving goodbye, and he walked to his car.

 

Rhodey entered the house and he could hear the television. He made his way to the living room and found Pepper sitting on the floor with Tony behind her on the couch, his hands paused in her hair as he stared at the television screen. Tony was naked but Pepper didn't seem to notice or care, and they were watching _Jeopardy_.

“I told him he wouldn't find anything,” Pepper said, gesturing to Tony's hands in her hair, “but he keeps trying.”

Rhodey sat on the couch beside Tony, who immediately scooted to him and touched his nose to Rhodey's. “It just means he likes you,” he said, and Peppered cooed in approval at that.

“Did you remember Obie?” Rhodey asked Tony, who just shook his head. Lying on the coffee table was the model motorcycle that Tony had taken apart, each piece laid out neatly according to function and location.

 

*

 

They watched television for a while and eventually Tony laid down on the couch and nodded off, his head in Rhodey's lap and his legs thrown across Pepper's.

“How was the visit with Stane?” Rhodey asked.

Pepper shrugged her shoulders. “They both didn't seem too interested in each other,” she said. “Well actually, Obie acted like he was just...shocked, I guess? He kept saying, 'wow.' I thought he was gonna shit himself when Tony got hot and took his clothes off.” They both laughed softly, careful not to jostle Tony too much. He was in the habit of stripping whenever he was at home now that he understood what home was, and the difference between public and home. “That's when Obie left.”

“Tony needs a tutor,” Rhodey said. “Apparently Obie wants to parade him in front of some people and he doesn't want shit like that happening. We have to pull a _Pretty Woman_.”

Pepper thought for a moment before saying, “There's a woman in Legal who coordinates an adult literacy program for the Stark Foundation. She's kinda young but she's sharp as a tack. We should probably find him an etiquette coach, too.” She leaned over to spy the bottoms of his feet, which were still rock-hard and stained with decades of African dirt. “He missed you while you were gone. Kept asking when you were coming back.”

Rhodey just grinned at that. “He'll have his money and his houses by the end of the week,” he said. “So you can start rounding up some places for him to look at in the area.”

Pepper nodded and Rhodey looked to Tony's face in order to avoid her eyes. “So you'll go back to Edwards?” she asked, and Rhodey nodded.

“I gotta get back to work,” Rhodey said. “I left a bunch of projects open in the lab and I have SI stuff to worry about, too. It's been great, but I need to get back on base.”

“Have you told Tony?” Pepper asked, and Rhodey looked up at that, perplexed. “You're literally the only person he knows. Does he know you're not gonna be staying with him?”

Tony didn't know yet, and Rhodey couldn't imagine that he'd take well to that information. He looked down at Tony again and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“I mean, are you two serious about all that 'mate' stuff?” she asked.

“I mean it in the best way that I _can_ mean it, if that makes sense,” Rhodey said. “We can still see each other. He'll understand.”

“You two been going places lately?” Pepper asked, giggling, and Rhodey couldn't help but grin too as he shook his head.

“No we haven't,” Rhodey said, and he continued when Pepper snickered. “No, really, it's true. He doesn't really know what...I mean he's...”

Tony was a virgin, that's what Rhodey wanted to say, but he couldn't bring himself to even say it out loud, lest he come across as the ultimate sleazebag. Tony didn't know what he was doing just yet either, though he paid attention whenever they would lie in bed and kiss for hours, kiss until Tony did it slowly, naturally, and beautifully. Rhodey still let Tony thrust against him occasionally but he was hesitant to initiate much else between them. Tony's literal lack of knowledge on the how-to of human copulation meant that luckily he wasn't demanding and that the minimal amount of contact they had was enough for him. Rhodey always finished himself off in the bathroom as Tony slept afterward, and that was enough for him, too.

“He's never been with anyone else,” Pepper finished for him, and Rhodey wasn't surprised that she'd figured out his concern. “But that's no reason for you to be shy, is it? I mean he likes you well enough, and you care about him, too.”

“I think he needs to know what sex actually _is_ before he can consent to it with anyone, don't you think?” Rhodey asked, and Pepper nodded almost reluctantly.

“An officer and a gentleman,” Pepper mumbled, and Rhodey wanted to reach across the couch and swat her, but he realized that she was actually complimenting him.

 

*

 

Rhodey worked from Malibu as best he could for a couple of weeks, but pretty soon his emails were coming in quicker than he could respond to them. There was stuff he could do at Stark Industries while he was in Malibu, too, but SI wasn't the DOD's only contract and then there was the department's own weapons research to worry about. He coordinated projects remotely through hurried phone calls and emails while Tony showered or slept, but soon he would need to be in Edwards for probably weeks of testing and analysis on a slew of new bombers they were working on. Rhodey had his own life to continue living, and he wondered if adding Tony to that was a good idea. Tony needed a lot of attention, and Rhodey had to be honest with himself...work was starting to pile up in a way that began to worry him, and he missed working on his old Buick Electra at his home workshop. Tony having his own place was probably for the best, at least for a while. He didn't want Tony to be alone, hated to even think of it, but Rhodey couldn't stay in Malibu for much longer – he could spare a few weeks, at most. Edwards wasn't that far away from the coast – a little over two hours. They could still see each other plenty.

Rhodey wasn't sure when to break the news to Tony, so they spent the next few days working on reading and writing. Pepper had locked down a tutor from Tony but she didn't start until next week, but Rhodey liked reading with Tony in the mean time. Tony was picking up on things pretty fast, going from Golden Books to _Superfudge_ in only three days, and he was holding pens properly now, even if his handwriting still needed practice. Despite his quick progress he was still easily distracted and infinitely curious, and it all it took was the call of a gull to have him at the window and banging on the glass, or if Rhodey smiled too big or too long...he was still figuring out how he felt about _that_. It was obvious that Tony didn't have any problem with Rhodey being his first, especially since he was now kneading Rhodey's thigh while flawlessly rattling off a paragraph of his book.

“Good job,” Rhodey said, and he placed his hand on top of Tony's and moved it away, closer to his knee. Tony usually protested but Rhodey distracted him quickly with another paragraph of _Superfudge_ to read aloud, and he was doing well – he went slowly but he didn't mess up, as usual, and his hand crawled slowly back up Rhodey's thigh, as usual.

“Tony,” Rhodey said firmly, “we gotta focus, okay? Keep reading.”

“I'm bored,” Tony said. “I'm done reading.” His sentences still weren't particularly long or complex, but he was beginning to speak them with confidence. “I can read fine, Rhodey.” He was scooting closer still and grinning as he rested his chin on Rhodey's shoulder. “Let's do something else.”

“Sure,” Rhodey said, nodding, and he looked down to gather up pencils and legal pads. “How 'bout we practice writing?”

Tony sighed. “No. I wanna practice kissing.”

Rhodey almost laughed. “After your signature, okay?”

 

* * *

 

“This one! It's great!” Tony yelled as he stood in the round living room overlooking the Pacific. Pepper was behind them asking the realtor about any structural issues that the house might have had, past owners, any history of disasters like flooding or earthquake damage. Rhodey was at the window with Tony, who had actually chosen the ridiculously sharp navy blue suit he was wearing. Tony looked up at him and smiled wide as he pointed out of the window. “We're by the ocean,” he said. “I want this house.”

It was a mile up Malibu Point from the place they were staying at right now, but it was at least three times that size. The move would be easy for Tony then, and there was enough property that came along with the house that he'd be able to build pretty much anything he wanted on the land.

Rhodey's phone buzzed in his pocket but he didn't look at it. He'd been emailing Edwards all day, trying to push some flight testing back another week. It wasn't working so far. “It's a nice house,” Rhodey said to Tony instead. “I like it, you'll be happy here.”

“You like it, too, right?” Tony asked, his smile fading. “It's your house, too.” and Rhodey knew he'd have to have a talk with Tony about public decorum when he reached down and held Rhodey's hand, drawing the realtor's eyes to them.

Rhodey forced his eyes to Tony's, even though their expression made his stomach tense with adrenalin. “I love it,” Rhodey said.

 

Back at the beach house, Tony removed his fancy suit in the foyer, adding it to a small pile of clothes that was already there. He was nude when he joined Pepper and Rhodey in the open-air kitchen, sitting on a couch nearby. Pepper and Rhodey were at the bar preparing themselves drinks. Tony hated the taste of liquor.

“When do we move to our new house?” Tony asked. Pepper shot Rhodey an unfortunate look as he went to take a seat beside Tony, and immediately Tony turned and flung his legs over Rhodey's lap, brought their faces close, his eyes wide and worried and wanting an answer to his question.

“I already have my own house,” Rhodey explained. “This isn't it – your family's company owns this place. I live two hours away in Edwards. That's where I work, too, at the Air Force base. I need to get back to work, Tony.”

Tony stayed quiet for a moment, processing. “Can you work from here?”

“No,” Rhodey said. Pepper was still leaning against the bar and swirling her Manhattan around. “I've got an office, a lab that I have to go to. I need to be in Edwards, not Malibu.”

“Okay. I can live in Edwards.”

Rhodey and Pepper shared a look before he continued. “Yeah, you could,” he admitted, “but we gotta get you up to speed first, pal. You just started tutoring with Natalie, remember? And you're doing great. I don't need -” _to be distracted,_ Rhodey almost said, but then he thought of a better way to say it. “I don't want to distract you from that, and I need my focus, too. Tony, nowadays couples don't spend every second with each other. People have jobs, lives that are independent from one another, you know?” Tony nodded, though it was hesitant. “We don't have to live together to be...what we are.”

“You said I could stay with you.”

Pepper took her drink and walked out of the room, thankfully. That was when Rhodey slid an arm around Tony's back and pulled him even closer, and he kissed Tony's face warmly. “You can,” Rhodey said, “of course you can, but you're here now, okay, and you need to learn how to survive _here,_ Tony. It's not like on the mountain.” Tony looked away, his expression pained, and Rhodey frowned. “I can settle out my stuff in Edwards while you figure out what you wanna do – I mean you at least gotta finish school, you know. That's gonna take a little while, and when you're done we can figure it out from there.”

“I don't understand,” Tony said, shaking his head slowly. “Stay.”

“I can't,” Rhodey said, and his heart skipped a beat at the face Tony made. “It's okay, you'll be okay, Tony. We'll still see each other, just not every day. Pepper is great and so is her driver, and Natalie – they'll take awesome care of you while I'm at work and we'll...”

Rhodey trailed off because Tony was looking at him anymore. He was just staring into Rhodey's chest and shaking his head. “I don't like it,” Tony said quietly.

 

* * *

 

Rhodey woke up to a phone call at 7:14 am. Tony groaned and shook his head, knowing that the call was for Rhodey and that it was probably work – and Tony would have been right. Rhodey sat up at brought the phone to his ear, blinking sleep away as Tony sat up and wrapped his arms around Rhodey's shoulders, shaking his head again, silently protesting.

“This couldn't wait?...oh, I'm sorry, sir. Yes, I'm in Malibu...when? At four?” They were supposed to be moving Tony into his new house all afternoon. The furniture had arrived and the decorators had finished up yesterday. “I've got something this afternoon, I...I know, and I appreciate it, General, I really do...yes, sir.” Rhodey sighed, and he could feel Tony breathing beside him, one of his legs thrown across Rhodey's lap. Tony was nude as always, and he leaned in and kissed Rhodey's cheek. He could tell Rhodey was pissed.

“Sixteen hundred hours, yes sir.” Rhodey hung up and Tony was still kissing his cheek, pressing smooches all around, almost as if he were practicing (he probably was). Tony's arms were thrown around Rhodey's shoulders and he kissed at his neck lightly and carefully.

“Good?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Rhodey responded. He had to be at Edwards AFB by four in the afternoon, and he knew he wouldn't be able to leave once he was there. Tony's expression was concerned – Rhodey knew that Tony could tell that something was wrong.

“You have to leave,” Tony said, and Rhodey closed his eyes. He thought about lying, but Tony wasn't a kid. He could take it.

“Not 'til later,” Rhodey responded, and he doubted that Tony found that to be reassuring. “We can go back to sleep, or we can just...” Rhodey had been the one to ask if Tony wanted to stay with him. He felt like shit for going back on that, even if was only for (what he hoped would just be) a little while. “We can practice.”

Tony smiled and kissed Rhodey's lips as he moved himself around and up into Rhodey's lap, straddling his thighs. Rhodey immediately laid back on the pillows with Tony and rolled his hips up into the body lying on his, making Tony moan into his mouth. When he did it again Tony's hips joined in, matching Rhodey's movements perfectly as they rocked together on the bed. Rhodey wasn't a huge fan of the humping, but they'd never done it like this before – meaning that Rhodey had never participated – well, he never felt right about participating at first, but it was clear that Tony knew was he was doing by now. Rhodey liked this, he liked their bodies sliding together even though he still had his boxers on, but nothing could mask the feeling of their erections grazing through the wisp of fabric between them.

Tony was shoving his hand between their bodies as they kissed, seeking out Rhodey's erection, and when he found it he gasped quietly into Rhodey's mouth, his grip weak. He eased up onto his knees and one elbow to make space between them, his touch shy and curious, and he looked down, too, just sort of blinking. Rhodey realized that even though Tony had seen him naked a million times by now, Tony had never seen him _erect_ , had never seen or touched another man's hard-on before at all, and for a moment Rhodey hesitated. But he wanted to do this with Tony, he wanted to try something new, something hotter and more involved than just kissing, and Tony wasn't hesitating. He was pretty much jerking Rhodey off now, Tony's own erection arching out eagerly from his body as Rhodey kneaded at Tony's ass with one hand.

Rhodey let his finger ease towards the cleft of Tony's ass with each squeeze, and he felt Tony's breath gust across his skin when his fingertips finally grazed across his hole. Rhodey did it again more purposefully and this time Tony's moan was sharp, surprised, and he dropped his chest to Rhodey's and arched his hips up further, and his hand paused on Rhodey's hard-on as fingertips caressed him. Tony swirled his palm around the slick head of Rhodey's cock before moving back down, making Rhodey's body twist at the sensation, and he we was tempted to ask where Tony learned that. Then again, what else was there for a man to do for decades in the wilderness?

Rhodey brought his fingers to his lips and spit on them generously, and when he touched Tony this time Tony looked at him with wide eyes, moaning helplessly as Rhodey's fingertips swirled and teased him. “What -” Tony began, sputtering, but his words melted into a pained sigh, his hot face falling to Rhodey's neck and nuzzling him there.

“Good?” Rhodey asked. “Is this okay?”

“Yes,” Tony said quickly, loudly, and clearly, and Rhodey watched the blush travel up Tony's neck as he arched back into Rhodey's touch. Tony's hand was faltering on Rhodey's cock but that was fine because it was worth it for Rhodey to see Tony's face redden and go soft as he got close, his cock still untouched but leaking generously now as his eyes closed and his mouth trembled uselessly. Tony's face in those moments was something that Rhodey knew he could come to love. Tony had never had anyone around to shame him for his sexuality, and Rhodey could tell. Tony made faces like every sexual experience was dynamite, like they were all a brand new blessing.

Rhodey let his finger ease inside slowly, carefully around a tightness that Rhodey hadn't experienced from a partner in decades, only up to the first knuckle, but that was all it took. Tony moaned desperately and let go of Rhodey's cock, falling flat against him and rubbing their slick cocks together, and seconds later Tony was coming, his hot face pressed into Rhodey's neck. The sounds Tony made, the heat and the wetness of his orgasm on Rhodey's stomach, his cock still rock-hard and sliding along Rhodey's – Rhodey never had a chance. Tony kissed his neck and Rhodey came as he bucked his hips up into Tony's, his skin warm and almost pulsing as Tony's lips traveled all around his neck and chest.

“Wow,” Rhodey breathed, and Tony lifted his head to smile at him. He kissed Tony and nuzzled his lips, rested his head back on the pillow and breathed. It had been too long since Rhodey had shared his bed with anyone more than once – more a side effect of his hectic schedule than DADT or anything else – and he had to admit that he'd missed it. It was nice to feel wanted, and to want the person he was with. Pepper was right – Tony was _not_ an ideal partner but he adored Rhodey, sat close to him and touched him constantly and whined whenever he would move away, and Rhodey could see that Tony had potential. Tony had always been brilliant and it showed, with how fast he was picking up on language and social decorum. Rhodey wanted to _talk_ to Tony, to have a real conversation with him. He wanted to really know him. He didn't want to leave him in Malibu.

“Tony,” Rhodey said as he lifted his head from the pillow to look at Tony, who was still laying on his chest and seemingly not bothered by the mess between their bodies. Rhodey _had to_ ask. “Are you happy here? Do you like being in California?”

Tony thought for a moment, gathering his words. “The bed is too soft,” he said.

Rhodey chuckled, but then he tried again. “Are you happy?”

“Yes,” Tony said. “I used to be lonely, but not anymore.”

Rhodey smiled at that. “Wanna come see my house in Edwards?”

 

*

 

Rhodey figured that Pepper would be pissed at them for absconding to the desert instead of moving into Tony's new place, but in the end she didn't mind. She said she thought it was romantic.

Tony loved the drive through the canyons. It was hilly and green until they reached Calabasas and started to get into the desert proper, and when they drove past the main entrance to Edwards Air Force Base on their way to Rhodey's house, Tony said, “I've been there before.” He'd probably visited plenty of times as a child, Rhodey had imagined, riding along with Howard while he hobnobbed with Generals. They reached Rhodey's house around noon, and it was a nice house with four bedrooms, a workshop, and a modern, angular design – lots of straight lines and floor-to-ceiling windows, total SoCal chic. But some of his rooms still weren't unpacked even though he'd lived there for two years, since he'd moved in after his big promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. He'd been seeing someone when he chose the house, a blond who'd earned every bit of her reputation as a hotshot pilot, had assumed that they'd eventually make a family there, and now he felt like an idiot for having so many bedrooms and no one to sleep in them. It was too much space just for him.

Rhodey parked his truck in the garage and he and Tony got out, and Rhodey went to open the door as Tony just looked around at all the tools on the shelves. He remembered the model motorcycle that Tony had taken apart, and he'd also disassembled a Keurig coffeemaker.

“You like tools,” Rhodey said as he finally unlocked the door that lead to his workshop. “And you rebuilt that Harley when you were six.” They walked into Rhodey's workshop and he flipped on the light – it was dusty in there so he was glad he'd put a dropcloth over the car before he'd left for Africa a month ago. _(Wow, has it been that long since I was home?)_ He walked over and yanked it off, smiling at the sight of the sky blue paint and white leather interior. Tony walked up to the opened hood and peered into the car's mechanisms, touching tentatively and calling out the names of parts that he recognized.

“My dad's old deuce,” Rhodey said. “You worked on cars before, too, right?” Tony nodded as he reached elbow-deep into the engine, and Rhodey almost stopped him but didn't in the end. “Wanna help me with this one? I need to rebuid the -”

“If the engine knocks,” Tony said, and he yanked hard on something before pulling his arm out and showing a frayed and broken belt. “This is why.”

 

*

 

Rhodey ordered takeout and they rebuilt the transmission of the Electra in an hour. That was the biggest problem that the car had but it did need other small fixes, and Tony began taking the car apart with an expertise that honestly baffled Rhodey. It had been decades since Tony had used modern tools or worked in a shop but he was taking to this beautifully, easily. They worked side-by-side like peers, and the only time Rhodey remembered that they weren't was when Tony would ask what things were called. He might not have remembered the name for certain parts or tools, but he knew what everything was for and how to use it.

Three o'clock rolled around and Rhodey knew he needed to get dressed and head to the base. It was just him and Tony at his place right now, no one to stay with Tony while he was gone, but that was no big deal at this point. He was acquainted enough with modern surroundings not to hurt himself or start a fire, wasn't he? And anyway, Rhodey was curious to see what kind of shape the Buick would be in when he returned.

Rhodey darted upstairs and put on desert camo before returning to the workshop, kneeling down beside Tony while he worked under the Electra. “I have to go to work,” Rhodey said, and Tony slid from under the car and sat up quickly. He was in a tank top and jeans, oil and dirt smudged on him here and there. He wiped his hand and face with a rag before tossing it away – his look and his movements were so casual, so normal that Rhodey almost forgot that Tony was barely even thirty days out of Africa. But he was reading and writing now, working on machinery, rebuilding things that he couldn't even name.

“When will you be back?” Tony asked.

“I don't know. I have a lot of catching up to do and we're getting a late start today. You have your cell phone, don't you?” Tony nodded. “Okay, keep it in your pocket. You're gonna be here by yourself, so be careful, okay? If you need anything just call, and if I don't answer then you call Pepper, okay?”

“I'll be fine,” Tony said. “Do you have to go fight?”

Rhodey's brow wrinkled but then he smiled. When he was a kid he'd always thought that every person in military dress was headed off to war. “No,” Rhodey said. “I do what your dad did, I build stuff. I'm gonna try to just schedule stuff today and not do any actual work. I gotta get you back to Malibu, too.” Tony began to mumble protests but Rhodey shook his head. “You got school tomorrow, Tony, you have to go home.”

“I'm with you, though,” Tony said. “That's good, isn't it? That's home.”

Rhodey choked on the air for a moment, his face going hot, and he laughed away his embarrassment. “That's great, actually,” Rhodey said, “but your tutor is in Malibu.”

“Then Natalie can live with us, too.”

So Rhodey just leaned in and kissed Tony's lips, and he tasted like burgers and smelled like motor oil, which had an earthy scent beneath it's greasiness, a scent that reminded Rhodey of the first time he sat close to Tony, close enough to smell decades of wilderness sewn into his skin. Tony still smelled like that beneath the fancy soap he used, and it was nice to be reminded of that sometimes. He knew Tony missed the mountain, and sometimes so did Rhodey.

“See you soon,” Tony said, and they shared another peck before Rhodey stood. _See you soon_. That was one that Pepper had taught him because she insisted that _goodbye_ was too final. “That's something you say to someone you're not going to see for a long time,” she'd explained to him.

Rhodey got in his truck to make the short drive to the Air Force base, and he knew that he'd be seeing Tony again. He knew that when he got off work, someone would be waiting for him when he got home. And, even better than that, Tony knew that someone was coming back for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Future updates will not be so far between, I promise you. Thanks so much for your patience and feedback!


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